Spotted eagle ray kills Michigan woman in Florida Keys accident
A 57-year-old Michigan woman died off Marathon when a spotted eagle ray leapt from the water and hit her boat, a freak collision officials called extremely remote.
A routine boat ride off Marathon turned deadly when a spotted eagle ray leapt from the water and struck Judy Kay Zagorski as her family cruised through the Florida Keys at about 25 mph. The 57-year-old from Pigeon, Michigan, was taken to Fishermen’s Hospital in Marathon and pronounced dead after Monroe County Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Hunter ruled the cause blunt-force head trauma.
The collision happened Thursday, March 20, 2008, off Marathon, about 50 miles northeast of Key West, while Zagorski was riding in the front of the boat. Her father, Virgil Bouck, was driving, and her mother, Verneta, and sister, Joyce Ann Miller, were also aboard. The force of the blow pushed Zagorski backward, turning a normal run through Keys waters into a fatal emergency.
Reports said Zagorski suffered multiple skull fractures and direct brain injury. NBC News reported that the family requested no autopsy, and officials accepted that request. Dr. Hunter described the death as blunt-force craniocerebral trauma, a finding that underscored how violent the impact was despite the unusual nature of the accident.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called the strike a freak, extremely remote accident and said the ray was not behaving aggressively. Officials identified it as a spotted eagle ray weighing about 75 to 80 pounds with an estimated 6-foot wingspan. The species is protected in Florida waters and is known to leap from the surface, sometimes to escape predators, remove parasites or give birth.
Marine experts have said spotted eagle rays can grow much larger, with wingspans as wide as 10 feet and weights up to 500 pounds, but collisions with people are still considered extraordinary. Another Florida ray incident in 2006, involving James Bertakis, ended with a sting injury rather than a death, highlighting how rare and severe this Marathon case was.
For Monroe County, the incident remains a stark reminder that even calm, familiar waters can turn dangerous in seconds. The case drew attention not because ray jumps are unheard of, but because a leap like this almost never ends in a death investigated by the Monroe County medical examiner and wildlife officials in Marathon.
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